When you visit a different stranger’s home almost every day of your working life, you end up having a lot of interesting experiences—some incredibly elevated, and others rather harrowing. On today’s episode, we’re going over some of those highs and lows from Ken’s decades in book buying, from palatial estates filled with priceless antiques to hoarding situations infested with fleas. We never know what we’re going to find when we set out in the morning, which is what makes this job such an adventure. Join us as we revisit some of the most memorable spaces in the greater Boston area—for better or worse—on a hospitable new #brattlecast.
Brattlecast #118 - The Militia of Massachusetts Bay
Today we’re taking a look at a Massachusetts Militia pamphlet from 1758. ‘The Exercise for the Militia of the Province of Massachusetts Bay’ is a guide to forming and equipping a local militia, consisting mostly of rural farmers who would train part time and fight only when necessary. We’ll also talk about the history of militia groups in America, from colonial days to their sometimes controversial present-day iterations.
Brattlecast #94 - Salesman's Sample Books
Today we’re taking a look at salesman’s sample books. These were not complete books, but mock-ups, usually consisting of sample pages of text, possibly with a few illustrations, examples of different available bindings, and a space in the back to take down orders. They were brought door to door by traveling salesmen around the time of the American Civil War, and can be rare and collectible today. The example we have in the studio with us is a sample copy of Grant’s Memoirs, one of the best works of military autobiography, and a bestseller at the time of its publication, largely due to an ingenious marketing ploy by its publisher, Mark Twain.
Brattlecast #86 - The Boy Soldier
The ROTC was phased out of many high schools and colleges during the Vietnam War, but is making a comeback today, for better or worse. We’ll take a look at the history of this controversial organization by way of a book that predates it: The Boy Soldier, a textbook of infantry tactics for school children, first published in 1863 and available now at the Brattle Book Shop. Plus, we’ll take a look behind the scenes, at this process of determining a price for an extremely rare book like this one, which can be harder to research than other sought after but relatively more common works.